Advice on Setting Levels

Well gang, I'm close to being done with the construction on my studio and I've even done a little recording. I'm not sure if this is the right forum but if it isn't, I'm sure it will be moved to the right place. I want to try and set up my levels for all of my equipment and I just don't know where to start. What can I use as a real reference signal to set up my meters, mixing console, A/D/A converters, PA, etc.? I have a test CD from AES that has 0 dBFS levels at various frequencies and all kinds of other test tracks but no instructions. I have a bar graph for each channel on my mixing console that has a 0 dB light and I can make it light when the test CD is putting out 0 dB FS but I can make it higher or lower with the mic preamp gain adjustment or with the fader or with the volume control on the CD player (either external or internal CD drive). There are an infinite number of ways I can set all these controls to get the 0 dB LED to come on. From there the mixer direct outputs go to the A/D/A converters (3x M-Audio Delta 1010s) which have their own 0 dB level. Where do I start? Has anyone ever written down recommended steps from source to speakers (or tape or ???) or does it really matter in the end? The reason this all came up is because I just did a recording for a kid here in Big Spring and it sounded nice and loud in the control room. When he took it home and listened, it was barely audible. As it turns out, there is a "stereo output" fader in Cubase and there is a "monitor out" fader. I had one turned down and the monitor turned up so it sounded ok. What I should have done was set the "stereo out" (which is what the output wave file is based on) higher and turned down the speaker level. Any suggestions? len

Bob Katz (mastering engineer) has been an advocate of the K system. Defined as to consistently set the monitoring chain so that mixes become consistent across listening systems. you might want to read up on it. http://www.aes.org/technical/documentDo ... m?docID=65 while not a standard, it does make sense on many levels... and if you clients want to hear it really loud you can turn up the speakers and leave the room for a refreshment break...

Len, While this isn't "exactly" what you're looking for it may come in handy at a later date. It's a post from Kendale about 3/4 of the way down. It's concerning reference albums to compare your mixes to. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... c&start=15 Also, Gullfo, that was a great article. I only got to "skim" some of it, but it was really interesting.